Roach
The roach is a zerg ground unit set to appear in StarCraft II. Overview The roach is a particularly tough zerg breed due to its high speed regeneration ability. Attacks Currently, the roach is a ranged unit, giving it added utility at choke points. It has possessed the ability of attacking both air and ground units in the past, though is currently ground only.Karune. 2008-04-08. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 34. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-04-08 The roach rises slightly when it attacks.StarCraft. 2010-02-02. The programming team has added some impressive new unit movement animations to the game. Air units like the phoenix and banshee bank on turns, roaches and hellions both rise when they start moving, and tanks slightly bob when stopping. Facebook (StarCraft). Accessed 2010-02-03. It also has a melee attack that it, like the hydralisk, performs at close range for the same damage as the ranged attack. Abilities Regeneration Burrowed Movement Upgrades Strategies left|200px|thumb|Roach concept art|left A roach's regeneration is quite powerful, and it can often regenerate faster than it takes damage.Gamespot: Starcraft II Hands-On - Zerg Rush. Accessed on 2008-12-03 Roaches work well in small skirmishes rather than large encounters,The Roach at 90 hit points and 15 hp/sec regeneration excels at small number skirmishes, but at large encounters, they are not extremely hard to fight. 1vs1 a Roach will beat a Stalker. 5vs5 a Stalker group which focus fires and a little micromanagement can beat the Roaches with little to no losses. Roaches are the best at countering units that attack a bit slower and do not do huge amounts of damage with a single attack, such as the Zealot. Karune. 2008-04-25. Roach seems cheap... Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-04-25. because they are vulnerable to focus fire.Karune. 2008-04-24. StarCraft II Q&A Batch 36: ScreenCraft. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-04-24. A single roach can defeat a single stalker due to its high regeneration, for instance, but several stalkers can defeat several roaches with focus fire. Groups of s can counter roaches as well.For those who are also wondering, as Terrans, countering Roaches with Marines work pretty well, again assuming it is not 1vs1. Overall, Roaches are a unit that not only excel at smaller battles, but also forces your opponent to constantly micromanage a battle, especially while mixed in with other units, making it more difficult to macromanage your economy at the same time. Karune. 2008-04-25. Roach seems cheap.. (page 2). Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-04-25. Roaches are also vulnerable to sustained damage.Medievaldragon. 2008-03-10, StarCraft II-Zerg Unveiled. Blizzplanet. Accessed on 2008-03-10 Roaches are strong against opponents that attack slowly and do low damage per attack, such as zealots. Karune reports that "in theorycrafting, they seem stronger than they actually are, although specific units must be used to counter them, or additional micromanagement time be taken to defeat them. s, stim packed s, stalkers, immortals, s, hydralisks, and any air to ground unit, are all effective at killing Roaches with a little micromanagement."Psi Storm hits both ground and air. Also, I wanted to add to question 1 that Roaches seem very strong with their regeneration, but with even a little bit of micro management, they are pretty easy to kill. In theory crafting, they seem much stronger than they actually are, though you must counter them with either very specific units of spend additional micromanagement time on them. Siege Tanks, Stim Packed Marines, Stalkers, Immortals, Dark Templars, Hydras, and any air to ground unit, are all effective at killing Roaches with a little micromanagement. Karune. 2008-05-15. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 38. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-05-15 A roach/baneling combo is very powerful against terrans, as the roaches will soak damage, enabling the banelings to get close to the enemy and deal their high damage attacks.Hammy. 2009-04-04. ESL Finals Paris StarCraft II Gameplay Impressions. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2009-05-18. Zerg vs Zerg Roaches and zerglings are used early in zerg vs zerg matches. Compared to zerglings, roaches are a more defensive unit. Cost for cost, roaches win against zerglings in chokes but lose in open areas. Later in the game, numerous roaches can defeat numerous zerglings even in open areas.Karune. 2008-08-18. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 43. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-08-18. As a game progresses, a roach/hydralisk combo can defeat a zergling/mutalisk combo. Development In April 2008 the roach regenerated at 15 HP per secondKarune. 2008-04-24. StarCraft II Q&A Batch 36: ScreenCraft. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed 2008-04-24. (25 hp/second with Organic Carapace).StarCraft Legacy staff. 2008-06-29. WWI 08 Coverage - Zerg & Protoss Upgrades. StarCraft Legacy. Accessed 2008-09-01. A roach could heal fast enough to retain approximately 50% of its hit points if hit by a psi storm, and over 80% of its hit points after its regeneration has been upgraded.Karune. 2008-05-15. StarCraft II Q&A - Batch 38. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forums. Accessed on 2008-05-15. The roach's regeneration rate appears to have slowed as of April 2009.Dustin Browder, Robert Simpson, Matt Cooper, David Kim. 2008-12-19. Battle Report (2). Blizzard Entertainment. Accessed 2009-04-16. As of May 2008, due to a bug roaches were not affected by the Dark Swarm's secondary ability of preventing units inside it from firing.Karune. 2008-05-23. Nevermind, Roaches will be able to shoot under Dark Swarm (current, being a bug). Dark Swarm related. Battle.net StarCraft II General Discussion Forum. Accessed 2008-05-23. Dark Swarm was later removed from the game by October of that year.Zetaras Xal'Kurat. 2008-10-17. BlizzCon 2008: Changes to StarCraft 2. SC2 Blog. Accessed 2008-10-17. References Category:Featured Articles